Our family moved from Australia to Berlin in January 2005 for a 4 year contract, which we extended for a bit longer. Here are our adventures of our time in Berlin, as well as day to day things that happen!

Friday, 23 June 2006

World Cup experience #6 Aust:Croatia 2:2

I watched this game in Flannigan's Irish Pub, Sofia, Bulgaria, with a mate from work (see the entry about the trip to Sofia!).

We went to Flannigan's, and they had about 6 TVs and a big screen set up for the football. The sign out the front said that it was the Japan Brazil match - so we pleaded with the bar-tender and he took one of the TVs off-line, and we surfed all the channels to see if we could find the Aussie game. We thought we were out of luck.. then the coverage came on the big screen, and it was not the Japan game, but the Aussie one! We ordered a few more pints and settled in.

It was an exciting game, with some interesting refereeing (the reports after the game in the press were not very complimentary to the ref) and a crazy choice to put the reserve goalkeeper in Goal (he cost us both goals, I reckon).

The Aussies played from behind all night, first 0:1, then 1:2. but finally they scored the equaliser, the whistle went and AUSSIES were through to the next round!! What a fantastic result - anything they do from here is an absolute bonus, and they have played some good footy to make it this far!

After the match, my colleague and I went out to celebrate at the local casino, where we both finished up in front, and got to bed at about 4:00 am!

When I flew home the next afternoon, there were two guys on the plane in the row in front talking about the W0rld Cup. One guy was saying that he watched the match at Flannigan's, and that there was this guy with a beard and a guy in a Yellow Australian shirt going crazy for the full hour and a half.... So I leaned forward and introduced myself! I thought the guy was going to swallow his tongue!!! very funny.